THE BRICK
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car pas sed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy! pu sh his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!" God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.

Thought for the Day:
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.

If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.

He sends you flowers every spring.

He sends you a sunrise every morning Face it, friend - He is crazy about you!
God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow,sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.

(edited from email... author unknown...)

Upgrading and Saving on your IT Equipment...

If you are a startup company with basic equipment that is more or less outdated or doesn't fit your work requirements... Here are some tips on upgrading and saving some money in the process:

1) When upgrading, remember, Your hard disk, floppy disk drive, CD drive can always be used again on a newer model computer... by using them again, you could save almost (Hard disk Pesos 3K-4K, Floppy Drive Pesos 2H-5H, CD Drive Pesos 1K-2.5K)

2) Upgrades usually means upgrading your Processor (the brains of your computer ex. AMD Duron, Intel Pentium IV) and the Motherboard (Where everything is connected to on your computer...) Depending on your upgrade... sometimes you could still use the current memory (you could increase yours... ex.. from 64MB in older systems to 128MB... Windows XP requires at least 256MB) sometimes the casing and power supply can still be used... especially if it is an ATX or higher casing... Video cards may still be used.. depending on your requirements... if its just photoshop.. an AGP video card with at least 64MB of memory will already do..

3) When upgrading, it is advisable not to leave the technician alone with the upgrading... so that you can see what upgrades and what else he can do for your computer..

4) Monitors are usually sturdy and lasts a long time... but if it sometimes flickers for no reason at all... it is advisable to replace it...

5) while you may save on second hand computer parts... it is always advisable to get brand new or first owned (by you) parts... They will last you longer..


Up next, i will be taking about simple ways of determining your computer's parts...

Clients and Selling...

In marketing, the basic of all concepts is that of understanding your target market (or your clients)... For a formal web-development company or web developer, it would be kinda off to be selling your design services to kids...

When we develop a start-up business, we need to make our activities and image be centered arround our target clients... for example, if we have concluded our target market to be teenaged girls, most of our collaterals (brochures, calling cards, etc) would need to have a special design that would attract teenaged girls.

For simplicity of determining our "Target Market", we could come up with a target market demographic table or something, similar to the one below:

Demographics
Our market would be teenaged girls, who belong to the middle class, and can afford to spend a few hundred bucks a month on teen magazines... They would be living in the subdivision areas of southern metro manila. And they go to private schools.

Market Demographics is like telling a short story or description of who we are targetting... It specifies: gender, age group, social group... Once we have all of these, we can cater all our selling thrusts towards this group of people...

Here is an introductory piece for Selling or Salesmanship that i wrote in December 23, 2003:

Basic Salesmanship

Each of us, at one time or another, has had to sell something. Selling does not necessarily mean offering a product or service in exchange for a monetary consideration. It could also mean convincing people about an idea or thought or a concept. It could also be trying to get people to side with you.

The number one thing we must consider is this: do we know what we are talking about? Do we fully understand all the implications? Do we know how these would affect us or other people? They say the best salesmen are those who know their product well. Who ever said this was half correct because that is only part of the concept of selling. One might ask: “If we know the product we are selling, what else would we need to convince a prospect to buy our product?” The answer is simple. The other half of selling is “Honesty” and “Sincerity”.

No, we are not trying to preach the Gospel here, though that is not such a bad idea. Most people see right through a fake salesman; always in a hurry to close the sale making their buyers doubt in themselves and feel as though they were just “coerced” into buying.

We may read in salesmanship books that we need ingenuity, perseverance and the ability to create a need, to make the prospect want our products. These are all true, but my dear ladies and gentlemen, nobody talks about “Honesty” and “Sincerity”.

By being “honest” and “sincere” we empathize with our prospects, we try to feel how they would feel and to make them feel we understand their needs. When we go through the sales process, we would find it easier to close the sale if we took the time to explain the pros and cons of our product. If we made the prospect feel that we are not just selling “a product” to them, but rather, we are offering them a solution, then we are on the right track.

The best part of closing a sale is when we accept payment from someone who is not only satisfied with our product but also someone who can rest easy and not thinking that somehow we conned them into it.

I have once read that the number one salesman of all times is Jesus Christ, why? Because He knew what He was talking about, He was “Honest” and “Sincere” in all His dealings. So look at where His Product is now. The Church of God has withstood more than two centuries of faith. Isn’t that living proof of His salesmanship abilities?

Startup business tips..

Most of the time when someone decides he or she is an entrepreneur... they get so excited and plunk in all of their hard earned money into a business that, though they have studied very well, is still in its infancy stage..

I remember the dotcom bubble... people where investing heavily in IT people who used up all their finances on big offices, luxurious cars and other stuff business people could have done without...

The trick to startups, that is why they are called startups... is to start lite... in the beginning, one could use that old clunky pentium II or the AMD K6 series computer, or even that old typewriter that you used to lug around during your college days... for starters, the office could simply just be a vacant garage or room in the house.. remember, when we need to buy some things, it usually means that when we spend, this spending wouldn't set back our finances a few weeks... and the key is to only buy when it is completely necessary...

Once we have a decent working area.. the next thing to do, assuming that you have done your homework.. is to make out a decent set of calling cards and a letterhead.. all of this, (if you do have an old computer) can be done on your equipment.. of course prior to setting your startup date... you should have already registered your business and have all the necessary permits..

In my next post, I will be discussing about things like clients and the selling process...